Dr. Terry McGrail:

I will conclude shortly. Enterprise Ireland established the Irish Composite Centre in 2010. Since then, IComp has successfully supported many SMEs across the island of Ireland. Such support is proving to be a crucial enabler for rural development and for establishing manufacturing in small towns and villages. A recent independent review of IComp's performance highlighted its many national and international successes, for example, 198 jobs have been created and retained since 2015 and it is predicted many more will be created or retained in the next three years. In spite of this, due to the predominance of small companies in the composites sector in Ireland, IComp has not been able to meet the Enterprise Ireland criterion of attracting matching funding from industry. The current situation is that Enterprise Ireland will cease funding from the end of May 2020. However, Irish composites industries have expressed support for having a dedicated to composites centre. We call on the committee to recognise the crucial importance of composites to Ireland's sustainable transport system.

I thank the committee for listening. My colleague will answer any difficult questions.